1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to managing projects, and more specifically to managing labor resources for multiple concurrent projects using a computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Project Managers seek to deliver new or enhanced products/services to customers while maintaining a careful balance between cost, features, quality, and schedule of the associated project. Project Managers must complete deliverables on time and within budget for their corporation to realize a substantial profit.
Project Managers use scheduling tools for sequencing the activities of their project staff. Various manufacturers have developed project scheduling tools. However, the use of currently available scheduling tools has only moderately improved the success of such projects for a variety of reasons.
Unsuccessful projects fail to deliver the expected return-on-investment envisioned at the time of projected funding. For example, if a project delivery date is missed, the project may require funding above the initial approved amount.
The project management industry continuously measures and publishes information summarizing the percentage of successful projects being delivered on time, within budget, and fulfilling all requirements. For example, a project is considered a success when it is delivered on time, within the original budget, while satisfying all specified requirements. According to ongoing industry measures, less than 40 percent of the projects are considered successful.
Today, various factors influence the timely completion of delivery of project deliverables. Impediments can include complexities that may result from incorporating engineering change orders and modifications to the original project specification, such as the rewriting of an ambiguous requirement. Current project management tools lack the ability to handle multiple project deliverable items over multiple projects, as well as the associated development activities, costs, and resources required. Complexities arise when Project Managers try to measure efficiency, productivity, and skill for each individual. The inability to trace progress during the product development life cycle can impede accurate, effective, and timely project communications for information sharing across team members.
Complexities arise when a project or parallel projects require changes in labor resource assignments for a scheduled task during the course of multiple concurrent projects. Project schedules identify the needed labor resource(s), and then wait for the labor resource to complete their currently assigned task(s), return from a vacation, or recover from an illness. The inability to assign and acquire labor resources dynamically on a daily (or other periodic) basis as the resource availability changes presents a significant industry challenge.
Today, most corporate organizations create and maintain requirements for their individual projects in an outline form. Such tools provide linkage between the requirements, use cases, and test cases, in a fairly comprehensive manner. However, current tools lack analysis capabilities, necessary for ensuring quality requirements are produced and disseminated. Complexities may arise when Project Team Members formulate a differing interpretation or assign a different significance to a project requirement and when deliverable item requirements are added, deleted, or modified without notifying project management team members.
Organizations have a need to assign and allocate labor resources for concurrent synchronized projects according to factors such as task complexity and labor resource expertise presently faced, rather than historically encountered.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to have a project management tool that improves an organization's enterprise-wide labor resource allocation over their project portfolio.
The exemplification set out herein illustrates particular embodiments, and such exemplification is not intended to be construed as limiting in any manner.